Concussion claims won’t hurt NHL financially: Bill Daly

Concussion claims won't hurt NHL financially: Bill Daly

By Sheila Dabu Nonato

An increasing number of concussion-related insurance claims — including one from the NHL’s biggest star, Sidney Crosby — won’t have damaging financial effects for the National Hockey League, says a top league official.

Bill Daly, the NHL’s deputy commissioner and chief legal officer, told Postmedia News that although there has been an increasing number of players out with concussions, the NHL teams’ insurance premiums haven’t been affected.

Daly was responding to media reports that mounting insurance claims by hockey players like Crosby could lead to NHL teams’ financial ruin.

“It’s not a major concern to the league or to the clubs at this point in time,” he said. “We have not seen it really affect our business in a material way.”

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The NHL has a leaguewide insurance policy in which all teams participate, Daly said. So individual teams don’t get their own insurance, although teams can get insurance on top of what the league offers. In this way, the NHL negotiates on behalf of its 30 teams.

Daly said a having few individuals out with concussions isn’t going to affect the leaguewide policy.

Craig Button, former general manager of the Calgary Flames and now an NHL Network hockey broadcast analyst, said the league’s blanket insurance “mitigates against their risk of losing players.”

“The insurance companies aren’t looking at one player — they’re looking at the whole league. That’s 700 players, and most of those are playing every game,” Button said.

“To suggest that it’ll be the downfall of the league and that many teams could be driven into financial ruin — I mean, come on.”

The insurance deductible applies to a situation where a player misses more than 30 consecutive games due to one injury, such as a concussion, Button added. Before that 30-game benchmark is reached, it’s the team that pays the injured players’ salary. But after 30 consecutive games, the insurance kicks in, with the insurance company paying 80 per cent of that player’s salary while the team picks up the other 20 per cent.

However, Button said there aren’t that many players who have missed that many games in a row.

“I think this is like ‘chicken little’. There’s always been issues in the game,” he said. “Insurance companies aren’t in the business of always paying out, or paying out unnecessarily. There’s always this back and forth.”

Concern about skyrocketing NHL insurance claims has been fuelled by Crosby’s high-profile concussion woes. The Pittsburgh Penguins star missed the second half of last season and the first 20 games of this season. He recovered from his injury to play eight games but was hurt again in December and remains on the sidelines.

Another star player, the Philadelphia Flyers’ Chris Pronger, will be out for the season due to severe post-concussion syndrome.

But Button said since there are few players who have missed that many games, insurance companies aren’t losing that much.

More than two dozen players leaguewide are currently sidelined with concussion symptoms.

As the former general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets, MacLean said the highest amount his team had to pay to cover players’ injuries was $450,000.

And although teams usually pay $250,000 to $450,000 for players missing more than 30 games, MacLean said these payments don’t really make that much of a dent in a $90-million team budget.

For instance, during his time as general manager, MacLean said the largest insurance amount his team paid was for player Brian Berard, who missed the entire season because of a bad back. The team received more than $2 million back from Berard’s $2.5-million salary because of the league insurance, he said.